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CHAPTER I

INTODUCTION

1.1 Background
Language is a tool of communication that cannot be separated from human

life. It is used in most of our time to communicate to one other in order to fulfill our

needs in social interaction. Language is used to convey something to other. The

language conveyed is called information. Information is good if the message of the

given information is the same to the received information heard. To rich that point,

language has to be packaged well and correct.


Language is an extremely important way interacting with the people around

us. We use language to let others know how we feel, what we need, and to ask

questions. We can modify our language to each situation. for instance, we talk to

children with different words and tone than we conduct a business meeting. To

communicate effectively, we send a message with words, gestures, or actions, with

somebody else receives.


One of the structural in linguistics is semantic. Semantic, roughly defined, is

the study of the meaning of words and sentences. In order for meaning to be

successfully studied, of course, it must be made clear just what meaning is. Although

most students do not feel confused about the nature of meaning, every few would

find a precise explanation of it easy to give. I fact, meaning is a highly complex,

many-faceted phenomenon, and any complete explanation of it must account for a

surprisingly wide variety of different facts. In addition, some commonly held ideas

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about meaning turn out, on careful examination, to be false. The purpose of this file

is to point out some of these misconceptions, and to discuss some of the kinds of

things an explanation of meaning must address.


There are some terms of semantic such as ambiguity. Ambiguity is an attribute

of any concept, idea, statement or claim whose meaning, intention or interpretation

cannot be definitively resolved according to a rule or process consisting of a finite

number of steps. That is why sentences in information should be conveyed as simple

as possible. But now days, it is often that information is conveyed not as explained

above.
Many words have multiple meanings, they are semantically ambiguous. For

example, bank can refer equally to a financial institution or to the margin of a river.

In such cases the context in which the word occur cab be used to disambiguate the

meaning. Evidence has been accumulating in the past decades that, when presented

alone, ambiguous words are recognized faster than unambiguous words. Accounts of

this effect have relied on the assumption that different meanings of an ambiguous

word have separate representations in the lexicon. One such theory is put forward by

Jastrzembski (1981), who suggested that, since an ambiguous word has several

representations, one of them will be likely to reach are cognition threshold before the

single representation of an unambiguous word.


Semantics analysis in ambiguity in English sentences. This ability of student

to analyze the sentence that has meaning ambiguity in English and this ability that

can make the student improve their concentration to distinguish the ambiguity

sentence.

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The research carries out the students of letters faculty of UMI in learning

English. The fifth semester is the population of the research. Its objectives are to

identify the ability of the students who are increase their semantic analysis.
The rationale behind such a method that student should know that in the

sentences sometimes we find sentence that has ambiguity. Considering the statement

above, the writer is interest in conducting a research under title A Semantic

Analysis of Ambiguity in English Sentences

1.2 Problem Statement

Based on the background described above, the writer formulates research questions

as follows:

1. How is structural type of ambiguity in English sentences?


2. What are the causes of structural ambiguity in English sentences?
3. How is the students ability to distinguish between ambiguity and anomaly of

English sentences?
1.3 Objective of the Study

The research problems which are hoped can be meaningful regarding to the

topic described above. Those can be formulated the meaningful regarding to the topic

above. Those can be formulates the meaningful studies based on the questions have

been stated as follows:

1 To identify the structural ambiguity in English sentences.


2 To find out the causes of structural ambiguity in English sentences.
3 To know the students ability to distinguish between ambiguity and anomaly

in English sentences.
1.4 Significance of the Study

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In this research, it is hoped to give further information regarding the problem

that can be found in distinguishing English sentences construction of ambiguity made

up by the students of letters faculty at Muslim University of Indonesia based on the

given objective research, these studies are expected that students can:

1 Identify the ambiguity of meaning in the sentences.


2 Understand the types of ambiguity in English sentence.
3 Improve and apply the ambiguity of English sentence in their understanding

as the basic skills of semantic. So that, the study of meaning in the English

sentence can be recognize based on their function and categories. For the

teacher are really expected to increase learning teaching process.

1.5 Scope of the Study

This research is restricted to use of semantic analysis as a way to analyze the

types of ambiguity and the distinction between ambiguity and anomaly sentence of

English. The researcher will get in fifth semester in letter faculty of UMI.

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CHAPTER II
RIVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 The Theory of Semantic


Monica and Joyce Power (1991:211) says that semantic as study of meaning

of words and sentences. In order for meaning to be successfully studied, of course, it

must be made clear just what meaning it. Although most people do not feel confused

about the nature of meaning, very few would find a precise explanation of it easy to

give.
Leech (1981: ix) says that semantic is as the study of meaning is the central to

study of communication while communication is a factor in special organization.

While Palmer (1972:1) states that semantics is technical term used to refer to the

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study of meaning. Baird, A. Craig (1971 : 157) cities, One of the most important

concept for you in understanding language and communication is the concept of

meaning.
After studying the theory and related references, the writer will concentrate

only on the concept of meaning based on Ogden and Richards theory (1923) that the

relationship between symbol and referent as the concept of the reference meaning. it

is rather an attempt to understand how that words and sentences can mean at all, or

better perhaps, and how they can be meaningful. This chapter provides the various

theoretical of background that can support the main chapter. In this research the

writer used semantic analysis, because the research has related with the meaning of

ambiguity and anomaly sentence of English. The word of semantic come from Greek

that is Sema or semainem which is means sign. Semantic is related with, what

people think about the meaning of word, symbol and their referents. In daily activities

people tell such kind of problems about they see, heard, feel and transferred into

some words and hope the hearers could understand it. After reaching the meaning of

those words, the reaction could become a comprehension or action from the hearers.
According to oxford dictionary that semantic or the study of meaning is a

branch of linguistics, concerned with studying the meaning of words in sentences.

Thus palmer in semantics (1981:1) started the semantic is the technical term used to

refer to the study of meaning.

2.2 The types of meaning

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The meaning of word is often complex, having such component as a

picture, an idea, a quality, a relationship and personal feelings and

association. Lyons 1977:643 in Palmer1981:40-41) suggested that we should

draw a distinction between sentence meaning and utterance meaning,

the sentence meaning being directly predictable from the grammatical and

lexical features of the sentence, while utterance meaning includes all the

various types of meaning, then, is the part of meaning of a sentence that we

are going to discuss in the next following. Lyons states that, utterance

meaning is the part of meaning of a sentence that is directly related to

grammatical and lexical features, but is obtained either from associated

prosodic and paralinguistic features or from the content, linguistic and non-

linguistic. The seven types of meaning are as follows:


2.2.1 Conceptual Meaning

Conceptual meaning is sometimes called denotative meaning

or cognitive meaning, it is widely assumed to be the central factor in

linguistic communication. Larson noted that denotative meaning is

also called as primary meaning, that is the meaning suggested by the

word when it used alone. It is the first meaning or usage which a word

will suggest to most people when the word is said in isolation. it is the

meaning learned early in life and likely to have reference to a physical

situation (Larson, 1984: 100)

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The denotation of word is its agreed-upon sense-what it refers

to, stands for, or designates, a part from the feeling it may call up, and

this again is able for a good deal on the context the words that appears

in.

It is said that the aim of denotative meaning is to provide, for

any given interpretation of a sentence, a configuration of abstract

symbols, in which shows exactly what we need to know if we are to

distinguish that meaning from all other possible sentence meaning in

the language.

In particular, there are two structural principle that seem to lie

at the basis of all linguistic pattering : the principle of contrastiveness

and the principle of structure contrastive features underlie the

classification of sounds in phonology, for example, in that any label

we apply to sound defines it positively, by what features it possess.

Thus the phonetic symbol /b/ may be explicated at representing a

bundle of contrastive features + bilabial , + voice, + stop, - nasal; the

assumption being that the distinctive sounds or phonemes of language

are identifiable in terms of binary, or largely binary, contrasts. In

similar way, the conceptual meaning of a language can be studied in

terms of contrastive features, so that (for example) the meaning of the

word woman could be specified as + HUMAN , MALE, +, ADULT,

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as distinct from , say, boy, which could be defined +HUMAN, +

MALE ADULT.

The second principle , that of structure , is the principle by

which larger linguistic units are built up out smaller units ; or ( looking

at it from the opposite point of view ) by which we are able to analyse

a sentence syntactically into its constituent parts, moving from its

immediate constituents through a hierarchy of sub-division to its

ultimate constituents or smallest syntactic elements. This aspect of the

organization of language is often given display in tree - diagram:

Sentence

Subject Predicate

Determiner Noun Verb Complement

Determiner Noun

No man is an island

Or it can be represented by bracketing :

{(No) (man)} {[(is)] [(an) (island)]}

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It has long been taken for granted that the syntax of a language

is to be handled in such a terms. But it is now also widely accepted

that the semantics of natural language has its own counterpart of

syntactic structure, or (to use in many ways closer analogy) of the

system of symbolic logic devised by mathematicians and philosopher .

Leech (1974 :10)

2.2.2 Connotative Meaning.

As we experience, words are human situations, they not only

take on certain denotation, but also often acquire individual flavors.

They have come to have emotive tone, the associations, and

suggestiveness of the situation in which they have been a part. For

example let us examine the words brink. This denotes on edge.

However in the phrase The brink of the cliff or the brink of

disaster, this word suggest danger and its emotive tone is that of fear.

According to Leech (1974: 40-41) connotative meaning is the

communicative value an expression has by virtue of what it refers to,

over and above its purely conceptual content. It will be clear if we are

talking about connotation, we are in fact talking about the real word

experience. Someone associates with an expression when someone

uses and hears it. The fact that if we compared connotative meaning

with denotative meaning is that connotations are relatively unstable;

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that is they vary considerably we have seen, according to culture,

historical period, and the experience of the individual. Although all the

speaker of particular language speaks the language exactly the same

conceptual framework, actually each of them has individual perception

of words. Connotative meaning is indeterminate and open in the same

way as our knowledge and belief about the universe are opened-ended.

Connotations play a major role in the language of literature, of

politics, of advertising, and a greeting card.

2.2.3 Stylistic Meaning

Stylistic meaning is that which a piece of language conveys

about the circumstances of its use. A recent account of English has

recognized some main dimensions of stylistic variation. For instance:

1. They chucked a stone at the cops, and then did a bunk with the

loot.
2. After casting a stone at the police, they absconded with the money.

Sentence (1) could be said by the two criminals, talking casually about

the crime afterwards; sentence (2) might be said by the chief of the

police in making the official report; both could describe the same

happening (Leech, 1974: 15)

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2.2.4 Affective Meaning.

Affective meaning is a sort of meaning which an effect the

personal feeling of speakers, including his/her attitude to the listener,

or his/her attitude to something he/she talking about. In order to get

people attention to be quiet, we might say either (1)Im terribly sorry

to interrupt, but I wonder if you would be so kind as to lower your

voice as a little or (2) Will you belt up. Factors such as intonation

and voice timbre are also important here. The impression of politeness

in the sentence (1) can be reserved by tone of biting sarcasm; sentence

(2) can be turn into a playful remark between intimates if delivered

with the intonation of a mild request.

2.2.5 Reflected Meaning.

Reflected meaning involves an interconnection on the lexical

level of language, it is the meaning, which arises in case of multiple

conceptual meaning, when one senses of word forms part of our

response to another sense. For instance, on hearing the Church service,

the synonymous expressions The Comforter and The Holy Ghost both

refer to the Third Trinity, but the Comforter sounds warm and

comforting, while the Holy Ghost sounds awesome.

2.2.6 Collocative Meaning.

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Collocative meaning consists of the associations a word

acquire s on account of the meanings of the words, which tends to

occur in its environment. For instance the words pretty and handsome

share common ground in the meaning of good looking. But may be

distinguished by the range of noun in which they are like to occur or

collocate; Pretty woman and handsome man. The ranges may well

match although they suggest a different kind of attractiveness of the

adjectives.

2.2.7 Thematic Meaning.

This is the final category of meaning, thematic meaning is the

meaning that is communicated by the way in which the speaker or

writer organizes the message, in terms of ordering, focus, and

emphasis. It is often felt an active sentence such as (1) below has a

different meaning from its passive equivalent (2) although in

conceptual content they seem to be the same (Leech. 1974: 19)

1. Mrs. Bessie Smith donated the first prize.

2. The first prize was donated by Mrs. Bessie Smith

We can assume that the active sentence answers an implicit

question what did Mrs. Bessie Smith donate?, while the passive

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sentence answer the implicit question who donates the first prize?,

that in other words (1) in contrast to se

(2) suggest that we know who Mrs. Bessie Smith.

2.3 Concept of Ambiguity


The concept of ambiguity is generally contrasted with vagueness. In

ambiguity specific and distinct interpretation are permitted (although some

may not be immediately apparent), whereas with information that is vague, it

is difficult to form any interpretation at the desired level of specificity. Carroll,

Lewis (1966: 27)


Context may play a role in resolving ambiguity. For example, the same

piece of information may be ambiguous in one context and unambiguous in

another. The next, they also ask the definition of ambiguity so this one became

a very hot theme of discussion.


Talking about the definition of ambiguity, Kent Bach, Routledge

Encyclopedia of philosophy entry said that ambiguity is a word, phrase, or

sentence that has more than one meaning. the word light, for example, can

mean not very heavy or not very dark. Words like light, note, bear and

over are lexically ambiguous. They induce ambiguity in phrases or sentences

in which they occur, such as light suit and the duchess cant bear children.

However , phrases and sentences can be ambiguous even if none of their

constituents is. The phrase porcelain egg container is structurally ambiguous,

as is the sentence the police shot the rioters with guns. Ambiguity can have

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both a lexical and a structural basis, as with sentences like I left her behind

for you and He saw her duck. The notion of ambiguity has philosophical

applications. For example identifying an ambiguity can aid in solving a

philosophical problem. Suppose one wonders how two people can have the

same idea, say of a unicorn. This can seem puzzling until one distinguishes

idea in the sense of a particular psychological occurrence, a mental

representation, from idea in the sense of an abstract, shareable concept. On

the other hand, gratuitous claims of ambiguity can make for overly simple

solutions. Accordingly, the question arises of how genuine ambiguities can be

distinguished from spurious ones. Part of the answer consists in identifying

phenomena with which ambiguity may be confused, such as vagueness, un

clarity, inexplicitness and indexicality.

2.3 1 Types of ambiguity


Bach, K (1994:9) gives description about types of ambiguity on

Encyclopedia of philosophy entry that there are two types of

ambiguity, lexical and structural;


2.3.1.1 Lexical
Lexical ambiguity is by far the more common.

Everyday examples include nouns like chip, pen and suit,

verbs like call, draw and run, and hard. There are various

tests for ambiguity. One test is having two unrelated antonyms, as

with hard, which has both soft and easy as opposites. Another

is the conjunction reduction test. Consider the sentence, the tailor

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pressed one suit in his shop and one in the municipal court.

Evidence that word suit (not to mention press) is ambiguous is

provided by the anomaly of the crossed interpretation of the

sentence, of the sentence, on which suit is used to refer to an

article of clothing and one to a legal action.


The above examples of ambiguity are each a case of one word

with more than one meaning. however, it is not always clear when

we have only one word. The verb desert and the noun dessert

and which sound the same but are spelled differentially, count as

distinct words (they are homonyms). So do the noun bear and the

verb bear, even though they not only sound the same but are

spelled the same. These example may be clear cases of homonymy

but what about the noun respect or the preposition over and

adjective over? Are the members of these pairs homonyms or

different forms of the same words ?there is no general consensus

on how to draw the line between cases of one ambiguous word and

cases of two homonymous words. Perhaps the difference is

ultimately arbitrary. Sometimes one meaning of a word is derived

from another. For example, the cognitive sense of see seems

derived from its visual sense. The sense of weigh in He weighed

the package is derived from its sense in The package weighed

two pounds. Similarly, the transitive senses of burn, fly and

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walk are derived from their intransitive senses. Now it could be

argued that in each of these cases the derived sense does not really

qualify as second meaning of the word but is actually the result of

a lexical operation on the un derived sense. This argument is

plausible to the extent that the phenomenon is systematic and

general , rather than peculiar to particular words. Lexical semantics

has task of identifying phenomena. It is also concerned to explain

the rich and subtle semantic behavior of common and highly

flexible words like the verbs do and put and the preposition at

in and to. Each of these words has uses which are so numerous

yet so closely related that they are often described as polysemous

rather than ambiguous.


2.3.1.2 Structural
Structural ambiguity occurs when a phrase or sentence

has more than one underlying structure, such as the phrases

Tibetan history teacher a student of high moral principles and

short men and women, and the sentences The girl hit the boy

with a book and Visiting relatives can be boring. These

ambiguities are said to be structural because each such phrase can

be represented in two structurally different ways, e.g., [Tibetan

history] teacher and Tibetan [history teacher]. Indeed, the

existence of such ambiguities provides strong evidence for a level

of underlying syntactic structure. Consider the structurally

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ambiguous sentence, the chicken is ready to eat, which could be

used to describe either a hungry chicken or a broiled chicken. It is

arguable that the operative reading depends on whether or not the

implicit subject of the infinitive clause to eat is tied an

aphorically to the subject (the chicken ) of the main clause. It is

not always clear when we have a case of structural ambiguity.

Consider, for example, the elliptical sentence, Perot knows a

richer man than Trump. It has two meanings, That Perot knows a

man who is richer than Trump and that Perot knows man who is

richer than any man Trumps knows, and is therefore ambiguous.


The sentences that includes of the structural ambiguity as follows:
1. Sentences with coordinated clauses or noun phrases.
Example: Bill and Mary got married.
2. Sentences with adverbial phrases or clauses
Example: He said he saw her when she left.
3. Sentences with prepositional phrases in which the PP could be

connected to the noun or verb.


Example: He saw the man with binoculars.
4. Sentences with non-finite clause in which the subject of the

non-finite clause is not clear.


Example: The horse is ready to ride.
5. Negative sentences
Example: All of you wont pass.
6. Sentences with relative clauses
Example: the driver of my sister who lived there died.
7. Sentences with ellipsis in the second clause.
Example: I know a richer man than John.

2.3 2 Ambiguity Contrasted


Kent Bach (1994:124-62), it is platitude that what your words

convey depends on what you mean. This suggests that one can mean

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different things by what one says, but it says nothing about the variety

of ways in which this is possible. Semantic ambiguity is one such way,

but there are others: homonymy, vagueness, relatively, indexicality,

nonliterality, indirection and inexplicitness. All these other phenomena

illustrate something distinct from multiplicity of linguistic meaning.

An expression is vague if it admits of borderline cases and terms like

bald heavy and old are obvious examples, and their vagueness is

explained by the fact that they apply to items on fuzzy regions of a

scale. Terms that express cluster concepts, like intelligent, athletic

and just, are vague because their instances are determined by the

application of several criteria, no one of which is decisive.


Relativity is illustrated by the words heavy and old (these are vague

as well). Heavy people are lighter than non heavy elephants, and old

cats can are younger than some young people. A different sort of

relativity occurs with sentences like Jane is finished and John will

be late. Obviously one cannot be finished or late simpliciter but only

finished with something. This does not show that the words finished

and late are ambiguous (if they are, they will be ambiguous in as

many ways as there are things one can be finish with or things one can

be late for), but only that such a sentence is semantically under

determinate it must be used to mean more than what the sentence

means. Indexical terms, like you, here and tomorrow, have fixed

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meaning but variable reference. For example, the meaning of the word

tomorrow does not change from one day to the next. Non literality,

indirection and inexplicitness are further ways in which what a speaker

means is not uniquely determined by what his words mean. They can

give rise to un clarity in communication, as might happen with

utterances of you are the icing on my cake. I wish you could sing

longer and louder. These are not cases of linguistic ambiguity but can

be confused with it because speakers are often said to be ambiguous.


2.3 3 Philosophical Relevance
Philosophical distinctions can be obscured by unnoticed

ambiguities. So it is important to identify terms that do double duty.

For example, there is a kind of ambiguity, often described as the act/

object or the process/ product ambiguity, exhibited by everyday

terms like building, shot and writing. Confusions in philosophy of

language and mind can result from overlooking this ambiguity in

terms like inference, statement and thought. Another common

philosophical ambiguity is the type/token distinction. Everyday terms

like animal, book and car apply both to types and to instances

(tokens) of those types and to instances (tokens) of those types. The

same is true of linguistic terms like sentence, word and letter and

to philosophically important terms like concept, event and mental

state. Atlas, J.D. (1998)

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Although unnoticed ambiguities can create philosophical

problems, ambiguity is philosophically important also because

philosophers often make spurious claims of it. Indeed, the linguist

Charles Ruhl has argued that certain ostensible ambiguities, including

act/object and type/ token, are really cases of lexical under

determination. Saul Kripke laments the common strategemen, which

he calls the lazy mans approach in philosophy, of appealing to

ambiguity to escape from a philosophical quandary, and H.P. Grice

urges philosophers to hone the modified Occams Razor : sense are

not to be multiplied beyond necessity. He illustrates its value by

shaving a sense off the logical connective or which is often thought

to have both an inclusive and exclusive sense. Grice argues that, given

its inclusive meaning, its exclusive use can be explained entirely on

pragmatic grounds. Claims of structural ambiguity can also be

controversial. Of particular importance are claims of scope ambiguity,

which are commonly made but rarely defended. A sentence like

Everyday loves somebody is said to exhibit a scope ambiguity

because it can be used to mean either that for each person, there is

somebody that person loves or (however unlikely) that there is

somebody that everybody loves. It is generally assumed that because

different logical formulas are needed to represent the different ways in

which an utterance of such a sentence can be taken.

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2.4 Concept of Anomaly

Historically, debates concerning semantic generally end at a standoff with

little more than intuitions or theoretical simplicity speaking in favor of either side, in

general, speakers interpret quantified statement so as to avoid having anomalous

sentences figure as their substitution instance, moreover, the existence of this,

quantifier domain restriction is very difficult to explain expect on the supposition that

anomalous sentences are not truth-valued.

James, R.S (2008:2) state discussions of semantically anomalous

sentences are generally center on the question of whether utterances of those sentence

are generally center on the question of whether utterances of those sentences create

truth-value gaps that is, whether or not utterances of anomalous sentences are so

defective as to be unusable to state claims about how things are. Semantic anomaly is

abnormally profile of the linguistic items in term of combination and interaction of

the elements of language in the different context which may create ambiguity and

connotation meaning. Braze, K (2001) utters sentences can be made anomalous in

specific ways such they serve to challenge different aspects of comprehension. For

example, a sentence might be (a) pragmatically odd, (b) grammatically defective, or

(c) semantically flawed.

Cruse (2000:220) shows semantic anomaly create positive and negative

effect in terms of getting meaning. The use of semantic anomaly in conveying

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message or information, in fact positively makes the words aesthetic and artistic. The

stylistic of the words combination is able to fascinate and dramatic the situation. It

cannot be denied the use of semantic anomaly beatifies the language, but it is often

destroy the essence of the real meaning of the message it caused the ambiguity and

language complexity. Here is examples get from the news bahanbom yang

digunakan persis sama dengan yang ditemukan dikuningan, actually the word

persis means same is also has the same meaning to persis means same. In

English it is said exactly the same.

The importance topic concerns the source of anomaly what makes a

sentence anomalous. This is a question foundational semantic. anomaly arises

because certain vocabulary is applied in ways discontinuous with its previous

paradigmatic applications. This distinct from a popular explanation of the source of

anomaly as a form of category mistake. on this view, vocabulary can be reapplied in

discontinuous ways to similar sorts of things, (things in the same logical category).

A new application of a predicate may be discontinuous, for example, because prior

meaningful applications depended on certain relations holding between predicated

objects, or because prior applications depended on specific features of the context.

It is already treated anomaly as a unity phenomena, without trying

distinguish different sorts. It is quiet a useful analytic tool, even without further

refinement as most speakers have sensitive intuitions regarding the normality or

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oddness of a bit of language. But it is useful to make distinction between different

types of anomaly. Cruse (2000) distinguishes for kind of semantic anomaly, they are:

2.4 1 Overlap
Overlap means one words semantic component is subsumed by

the other. Andrew goatly (1997:23) says overlapping or vagueness in

the meaning of common word form of the code which are used with

some member of classes is as the result of what count as metaphorical

and literal maybe equally fuzzy.


Example: receive a free gift with every purchase.
2.4 2 Prolixity

Prolixity means a phrase may have words add nothing logical or

relevant to the meaning. William ( 2009) delineates vigorous writing is

concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no

unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary part. The requires not

that the writer all his sentences short, or that he avoid all details and treat

his subject only in outline, but that every word tell.

Example: I am going down south (is not really down, it is just

drawn that way on maps by convention)


2.4 3 Zeugma
Silva (2009) states zeugma is the use of one part of speech in a

sentence to modify two or more other elements in the sentence,

frequently in different ways mean while, Richard (2009) argues

zeugma described the joining of two or more parts of a sentence with

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a single common verb or noun. It is the use of a word to modify or

govern two or more words although it use may be grammatically or

logically correct with only one.


2.4 4 Improbability
Improbability is a clash on the notion of inappropriateness

figurative is a kind of improbability of word. Goatly (1997) presents

improbability is something unbelievable. It is against the normality of

the meaning. Figurative language is a word or phrase that departs

from everyday literal language for the sake of comparison, emphasis,

clarity or freshness. Personification and hyperbole are two most

common figures of speech used in term. Used well, figurative

language enhances the function and can be economical way of getting

an image or a point across.


Examples: the puppy finished off a whole bottle of whisky.

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CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHOD

This chapter is present the description of method of collecting data including

population and sample which is going to be analyzed and the method of data analysis.

3.1 Research Variable and Indicators

The first variable of this research are structural ambiguity. Structural

ambiguity occurs when a phrase or sentence has more than one underlying structure

and the indicators of structural ambiguity are sentences with coordinated clauses,

sentences with adverbial phrases, sentences with relative clauses and sentences with

ellipsis in the second clause. The second variable are causes of structural type, and

syntactic category and placement of prepositional phrase that function as an adjunct

as indicators. The third variables are ambiguity and anomaly the Indicators of

ambiguity are structural and lexical and the indicators of anomaly are overlap,

prolixity, zeugma and improbablity.

3.2 Population and samples

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The subject in the study is the students of Muslim University of Indonesia. In

this study, it will take the fifth semester students of letters faculty that consists of 80

students as the population. The writer will take 20 students to be sample randomly.

3.3 Research Instrument

In this research there will use test to answer the problem statement. To

identify the students understanding in structural ambiguity, the causes of structural

ambiguity and the distinction between ambiguity and anomaly of English sentences

the writer will give some instructions to explain it.

3.4 Data Collections

The type of data that will use in this research is qualitative data. In this part

the writer will use internal source that is the fifth semester students in Letters Faculty

of UMI. The writer will use a test in order to have data about structural ambiguity,

causes of structural ambiguity and distinction between anomaly and ambiguity in

English sentences. The English test will be given to students in order to know about

the structural ambiguity in English sentences.

3.5 Data Analysis

The steps in analysis data are as follows:

1. To indentify the data that has structural ambiguity and the causes of

structural ambiguity in English sentences.

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2. To describe the data that has structural ambiguity in English sentences.
3. To classify the data about the causes of structural ambiguity in English

sentences.
4. To describe the data in distinguish between ambiguity and anomaly in

English sentences.
5. Concluding result of analysis which has processed by giving description

about the structural ambiguity, the causes structural ambiguity and

distinguish between ambiguity and anomaly of English sentences.

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BIBILIOGRAPHY

Alian, K. 1986.Linguistic meaning. London and New York :Rontledge and


Kegan Paul .

Atlas, J.D. 1989, Philosophy Without Ambiguity, Oxford University Press,


Oxford

Braze, D. 2001 The Parser Distinguishes Anomalies of form and


content : //www. Hasking. Yale.edu/staff/braze-cuny2001.pdf .

Cook , G.1989. Language Teaching, Oxford University Press, Oxford.


Cruse, D.A. 2000.Meaning in Language.University of Manchester.Oxford
University Press.

Cruse, D.A. 1986. Lexical Semantics, Cambridge University Press.


Cambridge.
Creswell.W.J.1994, Research Design, Sage publication, London.
Crabtree, M. and Powers, J. 1991.Language Files, University Press, Ohio
state.

Leech, G.N. 1974, Semantic : the study of meaning, University Press.


Cambridge.

Palmer, F.R. 1981. Semantics, University Press, Cambridge.

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